Estes Park Sports

Rockies right-hander Jhoulys Chacin delivers a pitch Friday against the Marlins in Miami. He allowed four hits, four walks and two runs in seven innings. (Marc Serota, Getty Images)

MIAMI — What was written on his glove said it all.

"Maria Alvarez, TQM," which is Spanish shorthand for "I love you very much."

Jhoulys Chacin pitched with a heavy heart Friday night, less than one week after Alvarez, his beloved grandmother, died in Chacin's native Venezuela. In his first game back from the bereavement list, Chacin pitched the Rockies past the Miami Marlins 3-2 at Marlins Park.

Chacin (12-7, 3.22 ERA) threw seven innings — and the Rockies rallied for two runs in the eighth to make him the winning pitcher.

"I think that (rally) was my grandmother willing that to happen," Chacin said in Spanish. "This game was very emotional for me. When I was a kid, my grandmother took me to all my games because my parents were working. She loved baseball."

His grandmother would have loved how Chacin pitched Friday, working around the heart of the Marlins' lineup and finding ways to keep the Rockies in the game.

Chacin allowed four hits, four walks and two runs. The walks were a season high for Chacin, but they weren't as bad as it might appear. Two walks were drawn by Giancarlo Stanton, the Marlins' most dangerous hitter, and one was against cleanup hitter Logan Morrison.

"I didn't want Stanton to beat me," Chacin said.

Chacin received some clutch play from his teammates as the Rockies won for just the second time in their past seven games. The Rockies also got a rare road victory, improving to 24-43 away from Denver.

Adam Ottavino pitched a scoreless eighth inning and Rex Brothers, pitching in place of injured closer Rafael Betancourt, earned the save — his 12th of the season — with a 1-2-3 ninth. He struck out two.

"Whether it's the seventh, eighth or ninth, I like Rex in the game," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. "He's tough to hit."

With the Rockies trailing 2-1 in the eighth, Troy Tulowitzki started the winning rally with his second double of the game. He scored on a single by Michael Cuddyer. With two outs, Ryan Wheeler got the winning RBI with a double to center field.

Ryan Wheeler hits a two-out, tiebreaking double for the Rockies during the eighth inning Friday night at Marlins Park in Miami. (Wilfredo Lee, The Associated Press)

"Huge hit by Ryan," Weiss said. "He's a good hitter, had a heck of a year in Triple-A. He hasn't had that many at-bats up here for us, so that was good to see."

The Marlins grabbed a 2-1 lead in the seventh inning when Jake Marisnick hit a one-out triple to right field and scored on Greg Dobbs' pinch-hit sacrifice fly. The oddest part of that sequence came on the triple, when third-base coach Joe Espada collided with the 225-pound Chacin, who was backing up third. Espada hit the ground but was OK.

The Marlins opened the scoring when Ed Lucas hit his third homer of the season leading off the fifth inning. He got a fastball down the middle of the plate and sent it 400 feet to left-center field.

Colorado tied the score 1-1 when DJ LeMahieu tripled to left-center leading off the sixth inning and scored on Cuddyer's groundout.

The Rockies are now one victory from winning their first road series since July 10 at San Diego.

Weiss said his team's poor record on the road has been, to some extent, bad fortune. He pointed to the team's recent series in Philadelphia.

"We were in the same position tonight as we were in Philly, going into the ninth with a one-run lead," Weiss said, referring to the two blown saves by Betancourt against the Phillies. "We could have won three of four in Philly. We've played a lot of close games."

LOOKING AHEAD: COLORADO AT MIAMI

Right-hander Jeff Manship is doing what he's been instructed to do. Namely, get batters to hit the ball on the ground. Trouble is, he still is winless and hasn't pitched past five innings in any of his three starts. And when he hasn't gotten the ball on the ground, he's given up the longball — two each in his past two starts. Fernandez, a talented 21-year-old right-hander, baffled the Rockies in a 4-2 victory for the Marlins on July 23 at Coors Field. He pitched seven innings, allowing two runs and five hits while striking out eight. Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post

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